Walk the Talk

ROMANS 14:1-12

¹Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. ²Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. ⁴Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

⁵Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. ⁶Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.

⁷We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. ⁸If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹For it is written, 
     “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, 
          and every tongue shall give praise to God.” 
¹²So then, each of us will be accountable to God.

MATTHEW 18:21-35

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” ²²Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

²³“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. ²⁴When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. ²⁵and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. ²⁶So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ ²⁷And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’ ²⁹Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ ³⁰But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. ³¹When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. ³²Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ ³⁴And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. ³⁵So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Hear the sermon!

Most of what I really need

To know about how to live

And what to do and how to be

I learned in kindergarten.

Wisdom was not at the top

Of the graduate school mountain,

But there in the sandpile at Sunday school.

That’s the beginning of a poem by Robert Fulghum, based on his book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. In it he gives little tidbits for getting along in the world—Share. Play fair. Live a balanced life. Be aware of wonder. Take a nap.

Our readings from the Bible today are similar guides for how to get along together as a church—as a group of people who experience the love of Jesus Christ.


If we were to simplify the Bible messages from Matthew and Romans the elementary message would be: 

Walk the talk.

Many of us are here in church because we feel like something is missing in our lives.  Maybe it’s the church’s absence after wandering away. Maybe it’s a desire to connect with something bigger than yourself.

Maybe it’s loneliness. Maybe life feels out of control.

Or, maybe you saw the sign outside and thought an ice cream sundae seemed like a good idea.

Many different circumstances bring us to this sanctuary. But when we are here, we are one in Christ. We are here to worship and endounter God, learn the Word and love each other. Something happens to us here in church. Something incredible. But, this church experience is the beginning of the journey of faith, not the end. We are to take what we learn and experience here out into the world. We are to live out our faith. We are to walk the talk.

In many ways, a sanctuary is like a Kindergarten classroom. Kindergarten teachers have a very difficult job. Children from many different backgrounds are suddenly thrown together into one room. Some of them are gifted. Some of the have learning disabilities. Some can read and do simple math, others don’t even know their letters and numbers. Some have been to preschool or daycare and know about following classroom rules and others have only ever been with their parents and siblings.

The letter that Paul wrote to the Romans offers advice on how to deal with such a mixed variety of people. The early church didn’t pop into existence after Jesus’ resurrection, it evolved. The early Christians were working out their theology together and there were big fights and divisions among the followers of Jesus.

They fought about how they should walk the talk. How should they act as Christians? They fought over what they could eat, whether to keep Sabbath and whether they needed to be circumcised first to join the church.

Paul is writing to the church in Rome about the disagreements they are having with each other. There were people who were weak in faith. That is they didn’t trust in the God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ. Instead, they thought they had to be more pious and upright to win God’s favor. They refused to eat meat thinking it made them more holy than the other people. These are actually the weak in faith.  The strong in the faith recognized the power of God’s love and forgiveness.

Paul tells us the strong and the weak are one.  We should welcome the people, not to fight over whether or not to eat meat. We should sit side by side, with a vegetarian salad in front of one person and a grilled steak in front of another. We shouldn’t pass judgment on what people eat or other religious customs since it is God welcomes all. Paul writes:

 ³Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.

If God welcomes them, Paul says, who are you to judge them? Judgment belongs to God alone.

¹⁰Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Lucky for us, God is a god of forgiveness and reconciliation.

As Presbyterians we believe that we are saved by God’s grace, not our own actions. Part of our understanding of salvation is that we are sinners in need of God. We all fall short of the glory of God. Our Reformed founder John Calvin calls this total depravity. It’s kind of a downer, really. We all sinned in the past, we are all sinners now, and we will be sinners in the future. Absolutely nothing we can do will change that. :(  

Total depravity is depressing to think about, but it does keep us humble—and equal. The best pastor is no holier than the town drunk than the eyes of God. Total depravity means there is no room for spiritual arrogance in the Kingdom of God. There is no distinction or difference among us. All of us have fall short of the glory of God. All of are dependent on God's forgiveness. 

But the good news is that total depravity is only one side of the coin.

The other side of the coin is God’s total grace. 

God’s lavish love is deep and wide and it's manifested in forgiveness. It frees us to live in grateful response to God’s love. We can live this way because we are forgiven in Jesus Christ.

We don’t earn our salvation by eating only vegetables, practicing circumcision, keeping Sabbath or adhere it religious rules. God grants salvation out of love for us. Following the rules, fasting, doing charity work, coming to church are all things that we do in response to God’s love and grace, not to earn it. 

We come to church to hear the talk of forgiveness, we respond by leaving the church to walk the talk. In Jesus’ parable Peter ask Jesus how many times he should forgive someone.  Peter tosses out the number 7, probably thinking he was being both smart and generous since 7 is the perfect number in Jewish theology and some Jewish teaching indicates that a person should be forgiven three times. Peter was probably like an eager student waiting for Jesus to pat him on the head. But, Jesus says forgiveness should happen 77 times, far more than 7. He then tells a story about how much God is willing to forgive our debts or sins.

In Jesus’ parable, the slave has a big debt to pay. We don’t understand how big the debt is because most of us have no clue how much a talent (the currency) actually is. Jesus exaggerates in the story. The servant's debt is so huge there is absolutely no way he could repay it. It would take him thousands of years to earn enough to repay the debt. The servant is in total debt.

But the servant encounters God’s total grace and the debt is forgiven. 

 It’s passages like this that led Calvin to think up concepts like total depravity and our dependence upon God’s grace. And this is good news. God sees how deeply we are in debt and forgives all of it. The king had pity of the servant who was on his knees begging for forgiveness. 

Total depravity on one side of the coin and total grace on the other.

But that’s not the end of the story. The servant was likely overjoyed at his forgiveness. Who knows, he may even have talked the talk, telling his friends about the awesome king who forgave him. The servant had heard the words of forgiveness and experienced total grace firsthand. But the servant didn’t live out the lesson that he learned. The forgiven servant didn’t walk the talk.

Instead, he comes upon another man who owed him money. What does he do? When he sees a man who owes him a small debt he grabs him by the throat and tells him to pay up. When he sees the servant on his knees pleading with him he had no pity and tossed him in jail.

Of course the king was furious when he heard the news. He asks, How could you not have mercy upon your fellow slave? Then, he insists that the servant repay his huge debt in its entirety and hands him over to the jailer to be tortured—which is kind of scary. But, if you think about it, there are consequences for withholding forgiveness. It is torture when we can’t forgive someone. Holding our anger and resentment eats at us from the inside. The only person we hurt when we withhold forgiveness is ourselves. 

Each of us is like that servant, in total debt that we can never repay. God forgives us and frees us through Christ. When you experience it, it is an amazing thing. Knowing that you are loved and forgiven by the God of the universe is a gift beyond words, a joy so deep and pure that you can’t really explain it. But's it not to be kept inside. It’s a peace that follows us into the darkest valleys of our lives and it’s a freedom that lets us love each other with abandon.

Embracing God’s total grace and trying to apply it in our lives allows us to live together in a community – with the weak and the strong.

Like a kindergarten class, we all come from different places. Some of us have horrific sin and pain that are obvious in our lives. Others of us hide our sin well beneath a veneer of middle class respectability. But here we are all together. We aren’t gathered to point out what divides us. We gather to glorify that which unites us--God.

We gather here each week to hear the talk, to read the Word, to remember God’s story. It’s a story that a kindergartener can understand: God created a wonderful world. Some bad things happened that separated the people from God. Through Jesus Christ, God is forgiving and reconciling all things, including you and me. We will live happily ever after because we are loved and forgiven by the God of the universe. We are the recipients of God’s total grace.

Go out into the world and walk this talk.

Letting Loose

MATTHEW 18:15-20

¹⁵“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. ¹⁶But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Welcome to church! The place where love reigns, forgiveness abounds and everyone is nice to one another ALL THE TIME. Or not.  

While we Christians strive to be righteous, loving and forgiving, sometimes there are conflicts in churches. Yes, Jesus changes our hearts and minds over the course of our lives, but we aren't made perfect by simply walking through the doors. I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. Yet, we are called to live out the love of Christ in all of our imperfect ways.

And trust me when I say, people are watching. People outside the Church watch us when we are at our best and they know when we are at our worst. As Christ’s church we are setting a standard of behavior that reveals who we really are to the outside world. Personally, I feel like I spend more time apologizing for the behavior of the Church than promoting it.

So who are we? Are we a church who loves God and neighbor? Are we honest and forthright people who treat each other with kindness? Do we respect each other’s dignity? Do we treat each other with love? Or, do we hold on to resentment? Talk about people rather than to people when uncomfortable and divisive issues arise?  Do we demand that other people repent and refuse to do it ourselves?

Please don’t misunderstand my intentions.  I love Christ’s church in all of its crazy, messy glory. Churches are a living, loving proof that God is at work in both the best and worst circumstances. From the glitzy megachurches to the dirt-floored tents, churches are beautiful and sacred places. But, they are all broken in some way. In order to attend Church for any length of time one of the first things we need to learn is to forgive the humanness, the brokenness, of churches.

That’s also what makes it so hard to attract and keep people in churches. People expect a church to be different from—better than—the PTA, the softball league, the Women’s Club or the Rotary. And we should be! We should let the love of Christ loose in our church, so that it infuses everything we do. 

But it’s a challenge. Just like those secular groups, we are made up of people who make mistakes, get angry and act out of self-interest.  Living in community and working together as a group has never been easy. Jesus knew that. So, he gives us some rules for how to deal with messes in churches.

When we read this part of Matthew 18, what stands out for many of us is Jesus saying—let them be as a Gentile or a tax collector. In other words we hear, “Toss out the scoundrels” or as the friends in the viral YouTube video Charlie the Unicorn say: “Shun the non-believer.”

In our black and white world, that’s often what we are tempted to take away from this passage. The people who screw up or (God forbid!) have differing theologies end up on the outside or in a different church, rather than reconciled to one another. We let anger divide us.

But, when we look closely we see that this line Jesus draws in the sand is the very last resort, not the first step. The steps that come before this are the hard work of being a Christian. They require that we be honest, forthright, repentant and forgiving. Jesus gives us a three-step program for how we might solve conflict that is hurting people or the church.

1.  Tell the person what they did that was hurtful or wrong. We need to be honest and truthful about pointing out a person’s fault—to them, not to the world. AND, we need to do it in a way that encourages repentance and reconciliation rather than anger and separation. This is hardest part. We have to swallow our pride and expose our vulnerability when we confront someone one-on-one.

The easier thing to do is nurse our anger and outrage and then go talk to someone else about it. I have a friend who does this. Her sister makes her so angry and she refuses to confront her. Instead she calls me and talks about her. When a conversation begins with

Can you believe she….

Did you hear about…

So and so told me….

Let me tell you about…

When I hear those words, I know that what comes next is a tangled web of bad behavior—both her sister’s and her own. All that negative energy is now swirling around me.

If a person sins or hurts you, if a person within the community is toxic and hurting the church, talking about the problem with other people multiplies it’s impact. The hurt, the hate, the anger is let loose in the community and it infects a bigger group as people begin to take sides and rally their troops. It’s hurtful and destructive.

Instead we are to go directly to the person and talk to them about it in a way that encourages them to listen. When sin and hurt occur, we shouldn’t let loose with a stream of invective or criticism—that hardly inspires positive change. Our purpose isn’t to accuse but to inspire. Shouting, accusing, name calling and blaming do not inspire often inspire repentance.

Sometimes our anger and frustration can get the better of us and that first conversation doesn’t go very well. Been there, done that. How about you? Jesus probably suspected that would happen, so there's a step two.

2. Take a couple of people with you, not to intimidate, but to reach out in love. Having other people in the room can work for the good in a few ways. It can allow someone else to do the talking so that the point is made in a more reasonable way or it can insure that you don’t lose your cool and you can present your point. It can also help the other person to hear the same message from multiple perspectives.

3.  The issue should be taken to the church (made public) only if steps one and two don't work . Then, the whole church should work together for repentance and reconciliation. If, though all of the attempts at pointing out the bad behavior don’t inspire change, the person should "be as a Gentile or tax collector" to the congregation. In other words, the person should not be part of the group.

Jesus’ lesson is for the well-being of his church, but it’s also for the well-being of the people, the individuals, that he loves. Talking to each other one-on-one preserves the dignity of the accused and the accuser. It gives someone who has done wrong a chance to make it right. 

I know I'm more willing to utter an apology to a single person. But when a crowd is watching, I'm more likely to try to justify my behavior.

This work toward reconciliation is what should make churches different from other organizations in our polarized culture. We are called to work together toward repentance and reconciliation before drawing the line in the sand. We are to try and try again to make things work, to reconcile with one another. We are to be loving and forgiving. 

But, there are limits.

There is no question that unrepentant and ongoing sin can be destructive and hurtful. We can’t let it run loose and destroy who we are or threaten our safety.

The man or woman in an abusive relationship has to draw the line in the sand for his or her well-being. The Catholic church had to take action against its priests for the safety of those in its care.

Abuses of power, ongoing gossip and a holier than thou attitude will destroy a church. Nobody wants to be part of that. There are times when lines have to be drawn and people confronted. There are times when we have to put distance between ourselves and others, but that doesn’t mean attempts at reconciliation have to end.

As a last resort Jesus says: If they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.

Now, can somebody remind me again why Jesus was criticized by his religious peers?

Oh right, because he regularly ate with tax collectors and sinners.

It's All About the Sheep

John 21: 15-19

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

 Driving in along the winding road on the Island of Mull, Scotland, we could see sheep feeding on the lush green grass.  The more remote we got, the more sheep there were. We’d come of the crest of a hill on a single lane road and there would be a cluster of sheep calmly looking up at as. As the car inched forward, they would move off the side giving us just enough room to get by.  The owners of the cottage didn’t want the sheep eating their landscaping and leaving  behind piles for guests to step in. So they put up a fence and a gate.

When we pulled up to our stone cottage on the Island of Mull in Scotland we laughed at the sign on the gate. It said, Please close gate to keep sheep out. The sheep were everywhere! 

Because my family and I were on a remote island and not sightseeing, there was plenty of time for walking and thinking—and looking at sheep. Sheep dot the landscape of Scotland and the landscape of the Bible.  It was a week-long sheep meditation.

Most of the big names in the Bible were shepherds: Jacob was a shepherd, David was a shepherd. Moses cared for the flocks in Midian when God appears in the burning bush. 

The Psalms talk about sheep and shepherds a lot.

Shepherds came to the manger at Jesus’ birth. Jesus goes after the lost sheep. Jesus sees crowds of people who are helpless and has compassion upon them since they are like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus is known as the Good Shepherd and his sheep know is voice. But, Jesus is also the Lamb of God, the one who suffers at the hands of the world. Jesus is pictured as a lamb in Revelation.

The early Christians choose Jesus as shepherd as the primary symbol of their faith. They didn’t emphasize the cross, but the care of Christ for the poor. It’s the Good Shepherd, Jesus with a Lamb around his neck, that is on the Roman catacombs.

Shepherds and sheep are a huge part of the biblical witness that bypasses us because it’s not a part of our everyday experience. We don’t really understand all this sheep and shepherd business because very few of us encounter sheep on a regular basis.

But, living alongside the sheep for a week provided an opportunity to see Christianity in another way. Who knew that sheep would be the source of such wondering? God is infinitely complex and engaging, it seems a bit odd that sheep are a dominant symbol. Sheep seem so simple. Some might say stupid.

But there is a complex interdependence between the sheep and shepherds that is worth exploring. In the Bible sometimes we are the sheep. Sometimes we are called to be shepherds.

On Mull,  the sheep just went ahead what sheep do. They coexisted with the houses, cars, and people. We could walk right through a field of sheep and they just kept their heads down and did their sheep thing—which is eating grass or chewing cud. They weren’t aggressive or territorial. But they didn’t just run up to us either.

Both my kids really wanted to pet a sheep, but each time the sheep managed to scoot out of the way before they could get a hand on them.

The sheep had their own little community within the world that we humans have created. We walked the same roads and paths and hung out in the same fields, but we went about it differently. While we were busy snapping photos of breathtaking views or checking out the standing stones, the sheep were there, too.  Doing their sheep thing.

As I walked among the sheep I wondered if this was what it was like to be an early Christian. Jesus and the early Christians lived at a time when they were not the dominant culture, the Romans were. Today, things aren't too much different. Christians aren’t the ones in charge of the building or creating the culture anymore, but we are participating in it. We live alongside many different kinds of people, but we live according to a different set of rules.

We don’t need to be in charge and in control of culture to live out our lives as Christians. We can just do our thing. We can worship, pray, care for others and glorify God. We can intermingle and interact without losing our Christian identity. We can love people without demanding that the be like us. We can be God’s sheep in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

And maybe, if we act like God’s sheep, people will be drawn to us as my own girls were to the sheep of the fields. Maybe people will come up to us, walk alongside us to discover what is means to follow the Good Shepherd.

As the week went by, different Bible passages came to mind. I remembered that in the Bible, we aren’t just called to be the sheep. We are also called to be shepherds. In our Bible story today, Jesus is telling Peter to feed his sheep. We, too, are called to care for each other and those around us. We are to take up the mantle of the Good Shepherd and continue the work of Christ in the world.

Jesus is saying to Peter and the church that we are the ones who are to feed the sheep. We are the ones who are to be a healing presence in the world. We are to find and care for people who cannot do it for themselves. It’s a huge job that we really aren’t equipped to do. But do you know what? Neither was Peter.

Jesus tells Peter, Feed my sheep. But remember Peter is a fisherman. Peter knows how the fish behave. He knows how to create and mend nets. He knows the fish market. When Jesus called him to be a disciple, he told Peter to follow him and he would make them fishers of people. Now, the resurrected Jesus is changing the rules of the game. He’s telling Peter to feed his sheep, not fish for people.

Peter is a little perplexed. What is Jesus saying? Why does he keep talking about love and sheep?  Of course Peter loves Jesus. Of course he wants to do what Jesus tells him. “Lord, you KNOW that I love you,” Peter says.

And what is Jesus’ reply?

Jesus says: when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.

In other words, Jesus tells Peter, you may have been in control of your life before, but if you love me, if you follow me, you’d better buckle up because we’re heading into unfamiliar territory. There is a good chance I'll take you someplace you may not want to go.

As shepherds, we are to care for the sheep. And if the image of a white, fluffy sheep on the hillside is idyllic for reflection, it’s not the reality for farmers and shepherds.

The reality is that some of the sheep need shepherds to care for them. They are too simple to get by in a world of cars and wolves. The shepherd's most important work isn’t done when things are going well, but when they are not.

The shepherd is vital to the sheep in need—the young, the sick, those who cannot care for themselves. Shepherds wander into dangerous and difficult situations. Sheep farmers works in the constant Scotland rain. The ground is boggy and the mud is ankle deep in places. Getting from one place to another can mean jumping over puddles. Falling means getting dirty, really dirty. 

When Jesus says feed my sheep, he’s calling us to go to the difficult places--prisons, hospitals, homeless shelters or with the homeless on the street in the grey and miserable weather. He's telling us to get dirty. This is the field work of the Christian shepherd.

It’s not easy. And sometimes it’s not pretty. My own teeth have chattered in fear when I've ventured into these places--my first day as a hospital chaplain, chasing street smart teen girls who wanted to beat up a young woman who seemed to be their friend the day before, facing an angry, red-faced homeless man who called me a hypocrite because I would not give him my phone number. 

For some reason, vulnerability and violence seem to be intertwined. Just ask Jesus. To be successful in our world means we shield ourselves from vulnerability--both our own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others. We look the other way when we see someone in need. It's just easier to let the sheep be then to try being a shepherd.

But, God calls us to look out for the sheep--to care for the vulnerable or exploited--to see that homeless person and do something to help him.

We can do this. Regardless of our background, we are shepherd material. As a church, we have great potential to make a difference in our community. Some of us are visionaries, some of us are builders, some of us are administrators, some of us are encouragers and some of us are brave enough to venture into the world of extreme vulnerability.  We can build up the weak, help heal the sick, go after the strays and look for the lost. 

This church is the body of Christ, the shepherd in the community.  Let us follow the example of our Good Shepherd and live out God’s call upon our lives, trusting that God will direct us, support us and guide us. Jesus says:

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 

We aren't called to live in a gated home or community. We aren't called to stay inside the church. We are sent out. We are called to follow Jesus out into the field, walk among the sheep, get our clothes dirty and work with him there.